Recipe: English Red Ale

               I have been brewing my own beers for about 20 years now. I brew every lind of beer you can think of, and many you could never imagine. For my first recipe, we're going to do a simple Ale. In Sweden I ordered my supplies from            http://www.humle.se/ 

The recipe goes as follows,

5 kilos/11 lbs cracked pale 2-row malt

1 kilo/2.2 lbs cracked crystal malt

12 liters/3.2 gallons water, heated to 75*c/167*f

additional 10 l/2½ gal. water heated to 75*c/167*f

100 g/ 3.5 oz Fuggles hops

100 g/ 3.5oz Goldings hops

Wyeast #1099 Whitbread Ale Yeast

I'll walk you through the steps,

                           

Step 1-Mash

5 kilos/11 lbs cracked pale 2-row malt

1 kilo/2.2 lbs cracked crystal malt

12 liters/3.2 gallons water, heated to 75*c/167*f

               Take a ice chest and lay a 1 m/3 ft square pc of cheesecloth in it then put your grains in and add your heated water. Stir well and you want to stabilize your temp at 68-70'c/155-158*f. Close tight, lay a blanket over it and let set 1½ hours. During this process you will convert the malt starch to malt sugar.

Note* The range for converting malt is between 65-71*c/150-160*f. At 65*c/150*f you convert more fermentable sugars which give you a lighter beer, like a pilsner, and converting at 71*c/160*f you get more fermentable sugars and some unfermentable sugars which add to a slight sweetness and more body, like a amber-dark ale.

                            

Step 2-Sparge

               Take hold of the cheesecloth and slowly lift it up, letting all the sweet malty liquid drain off, this is called wort. Put something under the grainsack, a rack or a colander to support it while the grains drip. Take a syphon hose and siphon the wort into a large pot ( by large I mean 30 l/ 6 gal.)

*Note: I have seen some people take a old keg and cut the top off to use as a pot and boil it on a gas burner in the backyard.

Take a additional 10 l/2½ gal. water heated to 75*c/167*f and pour this onto the grainsack in the ice chest again to rinse off all the sugars. This process is called a sparge. Let set 5 minutes, stirring, and then siphon off the remaining wort.

Step 3-Boil

Bring all the wort to a boil and add: 100 g/ 3.5 oz Fuggles hops

                                                      60 g/ 2 oz goldings hops

Let this continue on a full boil for 1 hour.

Turn off the heat and..      then add: 30 g/ 1 oz. goldings hops

Let it set in a cool place for 1 hour to cool down. Keep it far away from any vinegar or fruit that could bring in a wild yeast and sour your beer.

Step 4-Fermentation

              Make a solution of 4 l/1 gal water with 4 tbsp household beach. From now on, rinse everything you use with this, and then with clean water, just to keep things sanitary. Siphon your wort, through a screen, into a 30 L/6 gal glass, plastic or ceramic container.
Note: For our recipe, our goal is to make 25 l/5 gal so add some water to bring it up to the right volume.
 Toss in your remaining 20 g/3/4 oz golding hops for a floral aroma. Pitch in Wyeast #1099, Whitbread Ale Yeast after the wort has cooled to at least 20-24*c/70-75*f. Cover with a top & clean towel or fit a rubber stopper with a 1/4 inch line that seals the vessel and goes to a small bucket of the water-bleach solution. As the beer ferments, the sugar will ferment to alcohol, releasing gasses, and if you have the rubber stopper it will continue to bubble until fermentation is complete. Fermentation at room temperature should take 4-6 days.

Step 5-Bottling

Siphon off the liquid through a screen and a cotton towel, being careful to leave the sediment behind.

Note: The sediment you leave behind is a active yeast culture and perfect to pour anther batch of wort on to start another batch. Or you can take a small amount in a jar and save it, up to a month in your refrigerater

Note: Some people use Irish moss or gelatine to clarify bthe beer, I leave it natural, it's a little cloudy in the beginning, but it will clarify after a few weeks, leaving a little sediment in the bottom. 

Take 1 cup brown sugar & 1 cup water, bring to a boil and cool. Mix this in your uncarbonated beer. Mix it very well and siphon into bottles and cap, being as clean as possible. I buy 1 liter bottles at Ikea with self locking swing top (Grolsch style). Let the bottle set in room temperature for 10 days before opening. The brown sugar will produce a secondary fermentation in the bottle but now the gasses can't escape, thus your beer is carbonated. Enjoy!

         

Backaskolan Christmas Buffet Menu

Nouveau Waldorf Salad with Apples, Walnuts & Gorgonzola

Nouveau Waldorf Sallad med Äpplen, Valnötter & Gorgonzola

Tiger Prawns, Baby Octopus, Crayfish marinated with Ginger & Lavender, Baby Greens

Tigerräkor, Bläckfisk, Kräftor marinerad med Ingefära & Lavendel med Fyra Olika Sallader

Coquilles St Jacques Florentine

Pilgrimsmusslor med Spinat Florentine

Cranberry-Pecan Chutney

Tranbär-Pecan Chutney

Lemon-Caper Sauce

Citron-Caper Sås

Millefeuille of Smoked Trout

Millefeuille av Rökt Forell

Slaney Farms, Fresh Irish Lamb Chops, Fresh Herbs

Slaney Farms, Färska Irländska Lammkotletter, Färska Örter

Thyme Roasted Potatoes with Feta, Turkish Olives, Cucumber & Olive Oil

Timjan Rostad Potatis med Fetaost,Turkiska Oliver, Gurka och Olivolja

Fresh Norwegian Salmon Filet, Oven Baked

Färsk Norsk Lax Filet, Ugnsbakat

Pappardelle Alfredo with Winter Vegetables

Pappardelle Alfredo med Vinter Grönsaker

Range Free Fresh French Turkey

Ekologisk Färsk Fransk Kalkon

Black Truffle Risotto

Svart Tryffel Risotto

Gateau Basque, (a rich cherry-rum filling with vanilla bean crust)

Gateau Basque (rik körsbär-rom fyllning med vaniljstång deg)

Autueil,
(white chocolate, star anise mousse, filled with raspberry jam, an almond genoise, cognac syrup)

Autueil,
(vit choklad-star anis mousse, fylld med hallonsylt, en mandel genoise, cognac sirap)

Americans Celebrate Thanksgiving in Southern Sweden

            For the past three years I have done Thanksgiving dinner for 'The American Women's Club', Malmö  Chapter. This particular meal is probably my favorite of all the holidays. Maybe it's the childhood memories, or the fellowship with family & friends or just a great meal and now since I have been living abroad, I feel a sense of patriotism and it's a part of my American culture I want to share with my wife & children. This year I opened the dinner up to 'Democrats Abroad' and 'International Christian Fellowship' to bring in a few more Americans. I had about 50 altogether, mostly Americans with Swedish wives or husbands and their little bi-cultural children. I did a traditional Thanksgiving menu, perhaps leaning a little to the gourmet side, but thats my nature. I put a photos slideshow up on the gadget bar. It was a great day of celebration & fellowship with friends & family, the only thing missing was throwing a football outside afterwards, but this far in the northern hemisphere it's dark outside by 3:30pm.

A grand night in oldtown Ystad

I recently did a very nice menu for a party on oldtown Ystad, hosted by Ray Rau and his lovely wife Maria. Ray is American and has been in Sweden 20+ years. His children, from teenager to mid 20's, are a wonderful blend of Swedish and American cultures, switching from perfect English to perfect Swedish in mid-sentence. They recently moved down from Stockholm and bought one of those fabulous old houses in the centrum. Now in Ystad the churches date back to the 1200's and most of the old houses are from the 1500's, and Ale's Stones, not far away goes back to 600AD. Anyway, Ray & Maria have a absolutely gorgeous home, 3 floors of 4 meter ceilings, like stepping into a museum, but with a comfortable and personal touch. The house sits at the end of a street, next to a park with people strolling. I had come in contact with them through 'Democrats Abroad, Skane Chapter' and Ray was turning 50, and he is quite a excellent cook and was planning on doing the party himself but the guest list had

swelled to 30, and he brought me in to take over. We had talked earlier about some cooking lessons, but in the end I recommended buying 'The Professional Chef', a textbook from The Culinary Institute of America to study and practice the techniques and we could talk later. Since then I have been inspired to start doing instructional cooking videos and posting them on my blog & youtube. For the menu, we started  with a gratin of tiger prawns and scallops, on the spinach florentine, this has become one of my signature dishes, and as always, the dish is so impressive served with a crisp white wine. Next we had the seared yellow fin tuna with a five peppercorn crust...smoked & burnt on the outside, raw in the center, served with a spicy mango salsa and the super-fine sweet cream polenta. This dish is always a crowd pleaser! After we cleansed the palette with a cactus sorbet, we went to lamb chops with a herb crust, seared & roasted medium rare, they were cooked to perfection! I served them with a Perigueux sauce, pomme dauphine potatoes, veggies and baby greens with truffle oil. For dessert, I served the 'Moelleux au Chocolat', thats a heavy dark chocolate soufflé, filled with dark chocolate ganache that melts while it's baking and it's served warm so the warm melted ganache runs out of the middle of the cake. I served it with two sauces, a raspberry coulis & a white chocolate sauce. We brought in two professional waiters to serve, everything went flawlessly, the menu and the party were a great success! Often with parties in Sweden they have printed song sheets and sing songs between courses, give speeches, do a roast on the guest of honor, or just toast & drink lots of schnapps. At one point in between courses I looked up and saw a professional classical violinist giving a solo performance from the corner of the room. So Ray Rau turned 50 with style, it was definitely a grand night to remember!

Ann & Richard Carlsson's Dinnerparty at TLB

November is always a very busy month for me. I would like to tell you a little of a few dinnerparties I did. The first was a five course menu for Ann & Richard Carlsson. The venue was 'Three Lily Buds', just outside Vellinge in southern Sweden. Take a look at the video I posted on the gadget bar.They started with a Aperitif of Calvados & Cremant. I like to make the first course very special, a dish that really gets their attention and my 'Coquilles St. Jacque Florentine' is one that all my customers consistently rave about. I pair it with a cold, crisp white wine and the combination is heavenly! Also such a fabulous first course really sets the mood for the evening. The soup was 'Potage Agnes Morrell', the leeks & shallots pureed into a creamy velouté, served with a crunchy parmesan crouton and drizzled with a 30 year old Port. Next came a poached filet of monkfish, that I then baste with brown butter & fresh herbs, I make a super fine sweet cream polenta & lightly sauté julienned carrots, parsley root, red beets & cilantro and circle the dish with a rosemary buerre blanc.The root veggies really stand out with purple, orange, white with green specks. Ann Carlsson said it was absolutely the best she had ever tasted! We cleansed the palate with a cactus sorbet then had roasted breast of guinea hen , black truffle risotto, cranberry-pistachio chutney, carrot-celeryroot-saffron mousse with a peregeuex sauce. Dessert was Tocqueville, of course named after Alexis de, best known for his writings of 'Democracy in America' (1835), anyway, this was his favorite, A dark chocolate mousse, spiced shortbread, caramelized apples with a Calvados syrup. Everyone was very happy with the menu, which is of course such a complement to me!